#10 Montrose Dog Beach (Chicago, Illinois)

Top 10 Dog Beaches

Calling all city dogs looking for a little beach romp! Luckily for Illinois pups, Chicago is home to a wonderful dog park where the city folk bring their dogs to run in the sun (off-leash, no less) on a stretch of beach. For Chicago's dogs, Montrose Dog Beach provides a great taste of the seaside life. Montrose Dog Beach Website

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Asmina July 8, 2009 4:54 AM

Hai nize dream!!!!!!!!

Lake Erie Dog Friendly Beach July 8, 2009 3:44 PM

Just west of downtown Cleveland, the city on the lake, you will find scenic Rocky River. Tucked away there is a gorgeous sandy beach on beautiful Lake Erie. It's hidden away, though, so part of the adventure will be finding it.
Driving along the coast of Lake Erie on Lake Avenue, you will see Cleveland's beautiful westside residential end, & the northern edge of bedroom community Lakewood, - full of turn of the century mansions, Gold Coast high rises & enticing peeks of Lake Erie. Following Lake around Lakewood's west end, you turn right onto Clifton Boulevard & cross the Rocky River. Pass under the Detroit Avenue exit to downtown Rocky River, and begin looking for a residential street running north towards the lake - any of them will do.
Your goal is to find Beachcliff Road, which runs along the lake's southern shoreline. Turn left (east) on Beachcliff & drive about 8 blocks (1.5 miles or thereabouts) & look for Parkside Drive. You have found it! Ohio's best dogfriendly beach! Rocky River Park has great views, a delightful little sandy beach, as well as picnic facilities, a bath/changing room, and a playground. Walk your dog down the beach & find a place to lay down your towel. Park rules say that your pooch must stay on his leash, but you will see other dog owners throwing tennis balls into the surf for them to retrieve. It's quite safe, as there is an old breakwall about 20' out that keeps the dogs contained. You will feel like you've found dognirvana as you play with your best friend in this sunny little cove as sailboats & kayakers slide by in the distance. Coco, my 12 yr. old chocolate American Cocker Spaniel, loves it & you and your pet will, too.

Suz July 23, 2009 9:36 AM

Montrose Dog Beach is a really nice place to take your dog. Even though we drive 50 miles to get to since it is the only one in the Chicago area to go to. Last time we were there we noticed a couple of concerns. We saw more "dog dustups" than we ever saw any other time we went. We usually don't see any even when there can be 150 dogs. We also saw more "intact" dogs and they seem to be the ones getting into problems. It was a nice day and it seemed that there were more unsocialized dogs. People that thought it was a nice day lets go to the beach and take the dog. And their dogs are not used to other dogs and when one would go by them they would snap and go after them. The people that go to Montrose also seem to b there for THEIR socializing and ignore their dogs leaving them to run around and cause issues or bark constantly for them to throw the ball. We also saw one dog swimming out by the lifeguards looking for his owner who was one the beach reading a book listening to his ipod. My daughter and our dog were out there swimming and helped lead him back in and he went right up to this person.
Anyone that says that Chicago is a dog friendly city is out of touch. There are very few places that you can take them with you and we generally only go places we can take him. Of course the small dogs that can be carried can be taken almost everywhere but we have a Lab so we can't take him the same places. Talk about discrimination. When it says NO DOGS it means no dogs.

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